To help users manage and access applications installed on computing devices, various types of user interfaces have been devised. Typically, applications are represented by icons. The icons are displayed in folders, screens, and other two-dimensional formats. Often, a user is able to move icons, remove icons, specify icon locations, and so forth. When an application is installed or added to a shell or environment, an icon or graphic for the application is usually placed on a simple basis such as a next available slot in a folder, alphabetical position in a list, a user designated location, etc.
Such user interfaces, sometimes called shells or environments, may lack efficiencies, conveniences, and aesthetics. For example, a two-dimensional graphic shell may display pages of application icons. There may be no hints as to what is near the current page, what pages or elements a represented application may have, or what displayed elements an application may have. Consider also that various navigational operations may be abrupt. For example, to view a next page or set of application icons, an entire new page might be rendered. The newly displayed icons may have little relationship to the previously displayed icons, requiring the user to completely re-orient to the new information. Finally, organization may be limited to laborious manual formation and arrangement of containers such as folders.
Techniques related to three-dimensional user interfaces, in particular in relation to managing and accessing applications on a computing device, are discussed below.